I got my kit from Adafruit today. After a short nap I opened the box and proceed to install it on the Windoze PC running Win 7, I had no problems at all. So far so good.

Everything looked fine, so I first wanted to light up an LED on the breadboard straight from the power supply and ground pins on the Arduino - no program. The kit came with about 50 hookup wires of varying colors, so I grabbed a red and black wire and an LED and resistor and hooked it up.

The LED did not light. Man is this going to be that hard? This is brand new ... Bad LED? Bad resistor?

I fiddled with the wires for a bit but it wasn't going to work. I then tried to measure 5V directly at the wire ends at the breadboard side and got zilch. I checked the continuity of each wire and found the red one was open.

Keep in mind this was the FIRST wire I grabbed out of 50 ...

I cut the rubber coverings off both ends and I saw copper strands going to the crimp connector at each end. It looked OK, except it was an open. Are you kidding me? The wire is OPEN in the middle?

I got a new wire and got my LED to light up, and then downloaded the hello world (blink) program, hooked it up to Pin 13, and all is well.

This goes to show you, if you aren't careful, something complex can be torn down with a small issue. If I had gone straight to the program with that red wire I'd have been led astray in who knows how many directions when all that was wrong was something very simple..

The Arduino platform is OS agnostic and as such there is no real reason to make fun of one OS over the others. The Arduino developers team goes to a lot of extra time and effort supporting the platform across the popular OSs. But I'm sure you didn't mean it maliciously now did you, or did you? See we really couldn't tell from just the context used.

And about the 'infinite ohms' jumper wire, I too have come across a few, but mostly after some use, not bad from the box. It's a typical Asian QC manufacturing problem, some are better then others, but it's worth keeping in mind when starting a troubleshooting effort.

The Arduino platform is OS agnostic and as such there is no real reason to make fun of one OS over the others. The Arduino developers team goes to a lot of extra time and effort supporting the platform across the popular OSs. But I'm sure you didn't mean it maliciously now did you, or did you? See we really couldn't tell from just the context used.

Man - tough crowd, tough crowd. Take it easy life isn't meant to be serious 24/7. Since I've used windoze my whole life (including right now), if I meant the term maliciously, I would then be acting maliciously to myself ...

Or to put it another way, don't you kid the people (or things) you like the most? I do.

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And about the 'infinite ohms' jumper wire, I too have come across a few, but mostly after some use, not bad from the box. It's a typical Asian QC manufacturing problem, some are better then others, but it's worth keeping in mind when starting a troubleshooting effort.

Lefty

Funny thing is, I just got an order today with 2 sets of red/black test leads - different company. Guess what I found, and I am not kidding. The first red lead I grabbed was an open. How weird is that? That's two orders from two different companies and two red wires open not on the ends but inside.

thats cause some guy in china produces a million of them a day and sells them for a nickle a fist full

I got 2 pair of test leads from a company yesterday along with a new bench PS and some other parts. On the bad lead, I cut the banana plug end off that was encased in the covering, cut off the covering, and found one of the worst solder joints you can imagine. Just a tiny blob of solder that was a cold solder joint. The other end that had the clip lead was soldered so-so quality wise but I'd say about half the wires in the strand were just broken at the joint. Quite a useless piece of junk.

I went ahead and cut the banana plugs off the black lead and the other set of test leads too, and cut open the other plug ends and they were the same, and the clip ends were the same too - horrible quality.

Basically both sets of leads will have to be re-worked by myself. I'll go to Radio Shack and get better plugs today.

thats cause some guy in china produces a million of them a day and sells them for a nickle a fist full

I got 2 pair of test leads from a company yesterday along with a new bench PS and some other parts. On the bad lead, I cut the banana plug end off that was encased in the covering, cut off the covering, and found one of the worst solder joints you can imagine. Just a tiny blob of solder that was a cold solder joint. The other end that had the clip lead was soldered so-so quality wise but I'd say about half the wires in the strand were just broken at the joint. Quite a useless piece of junk.

I went ahead and cut the banana plugs off the black lead and the other set of test leads too, and cut open the other plug ends and they were the same, and the clip ends were the same too - horrible quality.

Basically both sets of leads will have to be re-worked by myself. I'll go to Radio Shack and get better plugs today.

Oh, you mean Rat Shack? Or is that term of endearment not in the urban dictionary?

Oh, you mean Rat Shack? Or is that term of endearment not in the urban dictionary?

Lefty

LOL - yea there ya go Lefty!

The last purchase I got had a link to a Rat Shack comment site, I told them they were of little use to hobbyists anymore and they should change their name to "Phone Shack".

That was pretty much the case for a long time, but I think they have gradually seen the error of their ways. Have you seen the selection of Arduino stuff and other micro-controller stuff they now carry? Pretty impressive for a walk in place that has a zillion outlet stores.

That was pretty much the case for a long time, but I think they have gradually seen the error of their ways. Have you seen the selection of Arduino stuff and other micro-controller stuff they now carry? Pretty impressive for a walk in place that has a zillion outlet stores.

Lefty

Yep, I was just there yesterday. The Arduino Uno (not a kit - just the Uno) was $69.

That was pretty much the case for a long time, but I think they have gradually seen the error of their ways. Have you seen the selection of Arduino stuff and other micro-controller stuff they now carry? Pretty impressive for a walk in place that has a zillion outlet stores.

Lefty

Yep, I was just there yesterday. The Arduino Uno (not a kit - just the Uno) was $69.

Must be a very greedy non-company owned franchise outlet store? Mine has it for $29.99, same as their mail order price:http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12268262